Slowly, as if fighting against a great weight, Ash raised his head. “You’ve made a mistake.”
Corbin crooked his fingers, and Ash jerked as though struck across the shoulders with a barbed lash. “You cannot fight my will. You are mine again.”
“Yes.” Ash’s teeth bared in a triumphant, agonized smile. “But they aren’t.”
Red scales filled the hole in the wall. Rose instinctively ducked, shielding her head, as an enormous horned head shoved through the charred stones. Emerald, cat-slit eyes narrowed as they focused on Corbin.
“Now, Dai!” Ash shouted.
“No!” Rose screamed, as the red dragon drew in its breath.
Panic gave her strength. She ran forward, flinging herself in front of the opening jaws.
The dragon’s eyes widened. Its mouth snapped shut, smoke gouting from flared nostrils as it choked back its flame.
“Rose, move!” Ash shouted. “Get out of the way!”
Rose held firm, not letting the red dragon get a clean line of sight on the warlock. With a growl, Dai drew back. A glimmering white shape leaped through the gap instead, pushing past Rose. The unicorn leveled its horn at Corbin, the gleaming length bright as lightning.
“No, Hugh!” Rose flung her arms around the unicorn’s neck, grabbing hold of its sweeping mane. “If you kill him, Ash dies as well!”
The unicorn’s head jerked up. It stared at Ash, ears flattening. One silver hoof stamped the ground in indecision.
“Just kill him!” Ash’s voice cracked in desperation.
“Rose.” John’s deep voice shook her bones. His huge hands closed over her arms, lifting her away as easily as if she was a child. “You must go.”
“No, no, no!” Rose tried to scramble back the moment he released her, but a gleaming black wing barred her way. “Chase!”
The pegasus snorted, nudging her toward the hole in the wall. Then it swung round, flanking John. A great golden griffin guarded the sea dragon’s other side, lithe and powerful. The red dragon’s horned head loomed above them all, lips drawn back from razor-sharp fangs. The mythic shifters fanned out, trapping Corbin.
“We will give you one chance, honorless worm.” Even though John was still in human form, he looked no less dangerous than his shifted comrades. “Release our Commander, or you will live long enough to beg for a clean death.”
“Alpha Team,” the warlock murmured, as though John hadn’t spoken. His gray eyes swept over the threatening shifters, pausing on each one in turn. “Dragon. Pegasus. Griffin. Sea dragon. Unicorn. You brought them all.”
Corbin raised both hands. Ash’s breath hissed between his teeth as the warlock’s runes lit up.
“Don’t be foolish, Corbin.” Ash’s left hand was clenched on his right wrist. Blood ran over his fingers in a steady stream. “Even with my power, you cannot hope to defeat them all, not together. Not with me fighting your control with all my will.”
“Correct,” the warlock said, light gathering in his palms. He spread his fingers, each one outlined with eye-searing fire. “I could not.”
He slashed his hands down.
Ten glowing rents opened in the air.
“You didn’t come alone,” Corbin said, smiling, as dark-robed figures surged through the portals. “Neither did I.”
Chapter 18
He awoke shivering. It had been so many decades since he had last been cold, for a moment he thought the ground was shaking. But no—he was shaking, his bones like shards of ice. Only the barest embers of eternal flame glimmered in the darkness of his soul.
“You are awake,” said a familiar, hated voice. “Good. I feared that I had tested the limits of even the Phoenix.”
With great effort, Ash managed to raise his head an inch off the concrete floor. Iron bars crisscrossed his field of view.
Corbin sat at ease just outside the cage, foot crossed over one knee, a glass of ice water in his hand. The warlock had swapped his customary heavy black robes for ones made of silk, loose and flowing. Despite his light garments, a faint sheen of perspiration beaded his lined brow.
It’s hot, Ash realized. The cage was set in a garden courtyard, the walls obscured by overgrown vines. A fierce tropical sun blazed high overhead in a perfect azure sky. Dimly, he was aware of its heat beating down on the back of his neck, but it didn’t touch the cold filling him.